Fast forward eight months and Mr. Taylor is in full-on détente mode with French industry minister Arnaud Montebourg, who is actively trying to persuade the tire plant’s left-leaning union to accept a standing offer from Titan. Mr. Montebourg met Wednesday with representatives of the union in Paris and said their resistance to a Titan buyout has softened.

“Mr. Taylor, who had had tough words for France, has muzzled his criticism and came back, showing his desire to get to an agreement,” Mr. Montebourg said. “That shows that France is capable of disarming its toughest critics.”

I did meet with your minister, a very nice young man, I told him that if he went to school in the US he may be famous for either playing basketball or being a wide receiver for a football team. We chatted, he ran for president, lost, I ran for president, lost, so we got a few things in common, but he’s a lawyer and I’m an engineer.

What did you talk about?

What I said to him was that the whole thing is: Goodyear owns a plant, the employees are Goodyear’s, the situation is that the union just want to see that place closed in my opinion. Goodyear tried to save jobs and didn’t work out, they can’t stop what they’re doing now, because that’s what the CGT is making it.

So where do we stand with your purchase of Goodyear’s plant in Amiens?

People at the top of the national CGT union should intercede; otherwise you leave poor Goodyear with no other option but to close the plant. I told the minister: if you have any say, you’d better get to the CGT and then make them come up with an agreement. The CGT has my number. The minister asked me: would you do this and this and this, I said: all this is in the parameters.

He gets his end done and then I’ll be more open to listen to reasons why.

When was the last time you came to Paris?

I was over there at the end of August. He’s got a job, if he succeeds in his job, he told me he would, and we would drink some good French red wine. I’d be honoured to have a good glass of wine, I drink both red and white.

You’ve become a celebrity – sort of – in France after your remarks about the French way of working.

Very few company CEOs give comment or would talk because everyone tells them, you have to be politically correct. Well I don’t worry at my age about being politically correct.

You have seven hours to come to work, paid one hour to eat, take a break, you work very hard for three hours, but the other three you just wander around, like being in a beauty parlor. You can’t just sit in a café drink wine and coffee and chitchat. Eventually, somebody has to do something because there’s no magical tree that will print out money.

You don’t sound too optimistic about France.

In France you’re losing your manufacturing. Why? What happens is that you’re allowing all these other countries, China, India, to ship their products to you. You have to protect your country. It’s not soldiers that are going to invade you: they’re going to take your jobs.

In the US when Buffet goes to sell a stock he only pays 15% taxes. That’s a problem.

When are you planning to come to Paris next?

I don’t plan to come to Paris until I hear that the minister and the CGT come to an agreement or one of your courts do it. If they can find a logical brain in the CGT maybe they can get together with Goodyear, but I have no knowledge of meetings yet.

Are you willing to bet whether Mr. Montebourg will make it possible for you to buy the Amiens plant?

I think your minister is out trying to do his job. He finally figured out that to solve this problem he has to go through the CGT. If the CGT decides that they’re going to close the facility, then that’s what will happen. He’s taken a lot of grief, he’s put in the hours.